Chapter 11
When Sam entered the control room, Grim ran towards him and asked him abruptly:
_ Is he okay?
_ Yes, he's alive, Sam said, relieved. His heart started to beat again, and he was breathing when I left.
_ Thank goodness, Grim sighed.
She kissed him and hugged him, and he felt better. Briggs ran into the room and stopped next to him.
_ Kestrel?
_ He's okay, Sam repeated to him.
Briggs let out a huge sigh, then said:
_ He'll make it. He's strong and tough.
_ Did you call your friend? Grim asked him.
_ Yes, Briggs answered. He's on it.
Sam, puzzled, looked at his ops with a question on his lips, but Briggs anticipated it.
_ I called a CIA friend in San Cristobal. He'll try and retrieve Alpha's ashes and bring them back to the US as soon as possible.
_ Thanks a lot, Briggs, said Sam after a few seconds fighting his emotion.
_ Don't mention it. Kestrel will be relieved to have them, and me too.
_ So will I, said Grim.
Sam nodded and cleared his throat. He had to concentrate on the problems at hand and put his feelings in the back of his mind. He said:
_ Kestrel has had the time to tell me that his torturer was named Vikachev and was a Voron agent. And that he wanted to know what Timochenko had put in his head.
_ That confirms our suspicions, said Grim. Kestrel has indeed something in his head, probably a microchip like Alpha. We really need to retrieve it, if it's safe for him. And I'll start my research on this Vikachev right now.
She bent on her computer and tried to hack into Voron's servers, a thing she has not achieved yet. But if Charlie had done it, she could too. And after fifteen minutes of hard work and a high amount of cuss words, she said at last:
_ I'm in!
Sam looked at the SMI as she went next to it, standing beside him and Briggs, and saw the data appearing on the screen.
_ Serguei Vikachev, she announced. Voron operative, forty-five years old. Specialized in ruthless interrogation and intimidation. His record mentions he teamed up once with Kestrel seven years ago in Siberia and sustained an injury there, but nothing more.
_ Now we know what happened, Sam said seriously. If Kestrel hurt him, it wouldn't be in the file. But we must know why he wounded him.
_ Kestrel's not the type to maim and like it, Briggs said. If he injured a fellow ops and was not fired from Voron, it had to be for a very good reason.
Sam nodded, but uneasiness was growing inside him. They were treading on murky ground, in Kestrel's past, and that could be very dangerous indeed. How would his ops react when he'll be aware of Fourth Echelon searching his case, his former missions and ex-colleagues?
He shook his head, concentrating on the data in front of him. He bent on Vikachev's evaluation file, and read aloud, translating simultaneously:
_ Shooting excellent, weapons holding outstanding.
He raised his eyes and caught Briggs' stare.
_ It was no accident he didn't kill Kestrel, he ventured. That scoundrel knew what he was doing.
_ That means Voron knows we'll fly him to the closest military hospital, Briggs said darkly. We're being used.
_ Wait a minute, Grim said, looking at both of them. Are you saying that this Vikachev shot Kestrel but missed his heart on purpose? And that he knew you'd shoot him?
_ I see no other explanation, Sam said grimly, anger in his chest. Look at his case: he joined Voron at twenty-two. He was so much experienced it can't be another thing than a sacrifice. I think Voron expects us in El Paso.
_ Then we shouldn't go there!
_ We have no choice, Sam said darkly. Kestrel's life is at stake, we must land as soon as possible and take him to hospital. But we won't leave him alone. I'll go and see Dr Collins. He'll have to phone his colleague. Grim, find all you can on Kestrel's missions with Voron, and that one in Siberia in particular. Briggs, call the FBI in El Paso, tell them we'll need a few agents to protect Kestrel in the hospital.
Grim and Briggs nodded, and Sam left for the infirmary. He knocked on the door, and a nurse opened to him.
_ Yes? she asked gruffly, and Sam recognized the woman as the one he had shoved aside earlier.
_ Er... Sorry to disturb you, he said apologetically. I'm sorry for...
_ That's okay, she half-smiled, I understand. What can I do for you, Commander?
_ How's Kestrel?
_ He's stabilized, but he's still unconscious. You can't see him, I'm sorry.
_ In fact, I'd like to see Dr Collins. It's very important.
_ I'll tell him.
_ Thank you. I'll be in the control room.
He turned round and backed to the vast room, impressed as always by the big screens and the team working on the computers and the SMI. He went next to Grim and looked at what she had found.
_ Can you help me? she asked him. I found this mission report buried deep in Kestrel's file, but it's in Russian, and I'm not fluent enough to read it.
_ Russian is not my favourite language, he confessed, but let's see.
He began translating approximately.
_ Mission report of agent Kestrel in Irkutsk, Siberia, January 18th 2009. Agent Hawk and I fulfilled the goals of the mission without difficulty. We killed the three targets and retrieved the case from the main target. It contained data on the American NSA and a small branch called Third Echelon.
Sam stopped there and exchanged an anxious look with Grim. His heart was pounding painfully in his chest. Briggs had come back and was also listening. Digging up Kestrel's past was very risky for precisely that: before Fourth Echelon he had been with Voron, and maybe worked against American interests since he was Russian. Grim put her hand on his, which supported him over the SMI, and said softly:
_ He's with us now, remember. But before that, he obeyed orders from his country. We can't judge him.
He nodded, and continued.
_ According to the file, Third Echelon is the equivalent of Voron in the NSA. Its operatives are called Splinter Cells, and are all over the world. The director is named Tom Reed.
After consulting the file, we went back to the vehicle and drove to our hotel. The owner had left us our keys, and apparently told his daughter to wait for our return. When agent Hawk saw her, he lost all professional manners and started to flirt with her. I had to remind him our mission was to deliver the case and its file as soon as possible, but he insisted on spending the remaining hours of the night in the hotel. As he was my immediate superior, I couldn't disagree.
When we retired for the night, we were in separate bedrooms and the only ones in the hotel save the owner's daughter. An hour later, I was awoken by terrified screams from agent Hawk's bedroom, and went to investigate. When I entered the room, agent Hawk was lying on top of the owner's daughter and tearing her clothes apart. His intentions were perfectly clear: he was going to rape her.
Sam stopped again, and this time he had to breath deeply and fight the nausea rising in his throat. Next to him, Grim had her hand over her mouth, and Briggs was grimacing. Sam was only regretting to have shot the guy and given him a soft death rather than the torments he'd have earned. But he didn't know this at the time. He shuddered to think it could have happened to his own daughter Sarah, and made a mental note to call her when they had a moment. But this had to be carried on with, so he inhaled deeply and translated the last sentences.
_ I ran to him and made him fall from the bed and away from the girl. She gathered her clothes and ran out of the room. Agent Hawk then grabbed his combat knife and threw himself at me. I defended myself for a few minutes, and nothing I could say was calming him down. So I grabbed his hand holding the knife and attempted to disarm him. He struggled, and in a sudden movement the blade jerked out from his hand and onto his eye. The pain sobered him up, and we gathered our gear and left the hotel, heading for the nearest Voron hideout. There we nursed his wound, and luckily he didn't lost his eye. But agent Hawk does not trust me anymore, and neither do I. Our official report does not mention the real circumstances of his injury.
Written upon request of Supervisory Director Valentina Stepankova by agent Kestrel, Mikhail Andreyevitch Loskov.
Sam raised his head and stared at Vikachev's photo on the screen in front of him. The picture showed the man he had killed with maybe less grey hair, but he already had his scar across the eye. The man's stare was intimidating at best, a killer's stare. He had been a hunter, and this stupid death did not match the person they were learning about.
_ It doesn't make sense, he murmured.
_ A guy like him is not the suicidal type, Briggs agreed. And he probably wanted revenge on Kestrel, so why didn't he kill him when he had the chance?
_ And why Voron kept him within its ranks? Grim wondered, disgust on her face.
_ That happens too often, Briggs said sadly. As long as the ops is doing a good job, the hierarchy turns a rather blind eye on these "little incidents". It makes me feel sick, but unfortunately it's very common in all the special forces of the world.
_ Yuck.
At that moment, Dr Collins entered the room and went in front of Sam.
_ You wanted to see me, Commander?
_ Yes, doc. Thanks for coming. I need you to phone back your surgeon friend.
_ Why? Have you changed your mind about agent Kestrel's microchip?
_ Not at all, said Sam seriously. We are fairly certain he has indeed something like that in his head. No, what's bothering us is that the hospital crew is most certainly infiltrated by one or more Voron agents who want to obtain this microchip and won't hesitate to kill Kestrel.
Hi! This chapter is a little late, sorry for the waiting! Enjoy reading it, and please tell me what you think about this story!